More than 1 million people visit 512-acre Lake Sammamish State Park during the summer months for hiking, picnicking and swimming.

On July 19, the day the park reopened after deadly shootings, some people said the incident gave them pause about returning. Others took a defiant tone against the violence.

The afternoon sunshine brought Carol and Joe Haldeman, 81, to the trails for a walk the day the park reopened.

“There’s nothing you can do with those gangs,” Joe Haldeman said. “When they get too close, they start shooting.”

Issaquah resident Victoria Law joined her 13-year-old son Dyllon Nguyen and two friends. The group made reservations for paddleboards more than a week ago. The shootings could not stop them from heading to the park.

“We were worried that the park would be closed for a while, but we got here about 11:15 this morning,” she said. “Something like this is unusual for Issaquah, or anywhere on the Eastside.”

Though investigators continue to comb Lake Sammamish State Park for evidence from the deadly shootings at a picnic area Saturday night, early indicators point to bad blood between rival gangs as a possible cause.

The shooting inside the park at dusk left two men dead and another four men injured. The shootout erupted after a dispute between two men from rival groups picnicking at the park. The cause of the argument remained unknown Sunday, although alcohol could have been a factor in the incident.

“It could be as simple as a gang rivalry, but we don’t know that for a fact,” Sgt. John Urquhart, King County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said Sunday afternoon.

The groups — including the shooting victims, friends, family members and children — arrived at the park Saturday and set up separate picnic sites about 200 feet apart, Urquhart said.

Both groups also included members with gang affiliations. Members of the groups came to the park heavily armed.

The rival groups included many members of Asian descent, though Urquhart said the fatalities included a white man. Police believe he could have been a shooter.

Tea Party activists came to downtown Issaquah on a cloudy afternoon last week to brew discontent with the policies of Congress and the Obama administration.

Issaquah and Eastside residents gathered for about 90 minutes for the Tea Party rally and a smaller counter-rally organized by the 5th District Democrats. The dueling events attracted about 120 people — about 100 for the Tea Party rally and about 20 Democrats.

Participants held aloft colorful signs at the corner of Front Street and Sunset Way to cacophony of honks as drivers passed the intersection. Others carried U.S. and “Don’t Tread on Me” flags — a yellow banner with a coiled snake and a symbol of anti-government protest.

Issaquah resident Tim Ooyman said he attended the Tea Party rally to protest federal spending and the way President Obama and lawmakers handled the healthcare-reform bill.

“The silent majority needs to stop being silent,” he said.

Ooyman and other activists picked April 15 — the federal deadline for filing income-tax returns — for the rally. Local activists also held events in Bellevue and Seattle. Washington State Patrol officials estimated the Tea Party crowd at the state Capitol in Olympia at 3,000 people. Read more

Shirley Jahnke (left) and Dave Weiseth, of Sammamish, share a cordial disagreement Tuesday during the Tax Day Tea Party. The event drew about 120 protesters and counter-protesters at Sunset Way and Front Street. — Photo by Greg Farrar

NEW — 2:40 p.m. April 15, 2010

Tea Party activists came to downtown Issaquah on Thursday afternoon to brew discontent with the policies of Congress and the Obama administration.

Local Democrats endorsed candidates Greg Hoover and Dean Willard in the race to represent Issaquah in Olympia.

Hoover, a Sammamish real estate agent and real estate attorney, seeks the seat held by Republican Jay Rodne, a North Bend attorney appointed to the state House in 2004 when then-5th District representative Cheryl Pflug became a state senator.

Willard, a Sammamish information technology consultant and a former vice president at Bellevue-based T-Mobile, will run against Republican Glenn Anderson, a Fall City resident first elected to the House in 2000.

Issaquah city and schools candidates rolled out long lists of endorsements — from elected officials, community leaders, business groups and political parties — during the push for votes.

Endorsements provide fodder for campaign ads and reassure voters with questions about candidates. The nods can also provide clues to party affiliations of candidates in the nonpartisan City Council and school board races.